Review: Fate’s Edge (The Edge #3) by Ilona Andrews

Fate’s Edge (The Edge #3) by Ilona AndrewsPublisher: Ace/Nov. 2011Fantasy3.5/5 Review copy borrowed from the lovely Chelsea of Vampire Book Club

Audrey Callahan left behind her life in the Edge, and she’s determined to stay on the straight and narrow. But when her brother gets into hot water, the former thief takes on one last heist and finds herself matching wits with a jack of all trades…

Kaldar Mar-a gambler, lawyer, thief, and spy-expects his latest assignment tracking down a stolen item to be a piece of cake, until Audrey shows up. But when the item falls into the hands of a lethal criminal, Kaldar realizes that in order to finish the job, he’s going to need Audrey’s help…

REVIEW The Edge series is so much fun! Each book features different characters, however, the settings and the characters do overlap and interact. In Fate’s Edge, we follow Kaldar Mar (cousin to Cerise, who you may remember from Bayou Moon) and Audrey Callahan, lock pick and thief looking to go straight and be done with her family forever. Audrey takes on one last heist, but when she finds out that she’s stolen a dangerous artifact that could fall into the wrong hands, she feels compelled to help Kaldar Mar get it back.

Ilona Andrews has created a fascinating fantasy world with the Broken (that would be our world), the Weird (full of magic and strick family structures), and the Edge, which falls between the two worlds. She somehow manages to combine Southern backwoods sensibilities and clan hierarchy with high fantasy, and it totally works. Audrey’s situation is heartbreaking. Her brother is an addict that refuses to get clean, and her parents would choose him over her, in spite of him being a no good loser. Her father convinces her to take on this last heist to get money for her brother’s rehab, even though they all know that it won’t do any good. She agrees to do it on the condition that she never has to see her family again. Kaldar Mar is hired by the Mirror (sort of the Weird’s version of the CIA), to reclaim the artifact and keep it out of the hands of The Hand (a bad news group of folks with an evil agenda). Kaldar is a rogue and a conman, and in spite of the intense sparks between them, Audrey vows she won’t fall for his charms. The problem with this is that a chair would fall for Kaldar’s charms. Seriously, he’s a hottie. You may want to slap him sometimes, but at the end of the day, you still want to fall into his arms. I have to admit, Audrey does a pretty good job of resisting him for most of the book, but she really can’t avoid the inevitable, can she? There’s plenty of action in this series to satisfy urban fantasy fans, and enough magic slinging to make fantasy fans happy as well! Add lots of sexual tension, steamy romance, intrigue, double crosses, necromancy, shape shifting and flying dragons to the mix, and you’ve got a fantasy cocktail that’s quite fun! Now, I must be honest, Fate’s Edge is probably my least favorite of the three, but I still enjoyed it. I wouldn’t say you have to start at book 1, but having some backstory does help when going into it, although the authors provide enough info that it wouldn’t confuse a newcomer too much. Ilona Andrews fans (of which I am one) and fantasy fans should love this series!

4 Comments:

Thank you for sharing today. I have been following this book around a bit and my fingers are itching to get it. Fate’s Edge is definitely on the wishlist. Thank you for your great review, you opinion is appreciated.

Fate’s Edge was a fun book from start to finish; filled with the epic world-building that Ms. Andrews so excels at, it expanded on the universe that the previous two books in this series built and mastered the depiction of some pretty particular characters. The plot of this book served to both further the overall story-arch of the Edge series and to help us explore the characters in this story in new and fascinating ways. Both old and new characters find new light in this book; all while keeping a pulse-pounding pace one step ahead of disaster and a humorous voice that made this volume a joy to experience.